Blueprint for Change

Blueprint for Change is an initiative by Blogadda in which you share 5 problems/concerns/worries that you face everyday and why accompanied with a blueprint on how it could be solved/changed. It could start right from your house and maybe who knows it could be the next revolution that we all dream to make India the country we all want to live happily in.

I believe change starts from you. You may not be able to contribute much but every little thing helps. In this post, I will be talking about how I feel I contribute and how can I contribute more.

1. Children of Tomorrow

Everyday I step out of my house to a very familiar sight, a rather saddening one. One I am sure most of you can relate to. And that is of children begging on the street. I can see they are hungry. They are a part of the 300 million people in India who go to bed without dinner. Funny how most of us, including me, can’t even picture 300 million hungry people.

Most of us choose not to give them money thinking it will soon be with their operators ( parents or other sinister beings ). I don’t believe in it either. I have found my way of not just leaving it at that. I carry those Rs 2/- Parle G packets with me and I give it to those children. I may not be able to do much for them but the gesture makes me satisfied that somebody gets a little to eat.

Another thing which worries us is education of these children. There are NGO like Akansha that educate street children. I want to start devoting couple of hours each week to help educate these children. A few years ago, I used to teach English to students of a Hindi Medium Government school to help them become competitive. I am hopeful that if all of us do our good deed for the day in any which way it suits us, we can realize the dream of a better future, not just for these children but for our society.

2. One man’s trash can be another man’s treasure

Frankly speaking, I find our intelligentsia’s EQ a little low when it comes to charity. We may be earning a 7-8 figure salary, but even a 3 figure donation becomes too much of a financial strain. We have a multitude of NGO around and a lot of people helping the needy with their basic needs. But they need aid to expand and to grow. It is here that our responsibility as a second tier of safety net comes into play. If we can’t be an active participant in the social sector, we sure can play a minor role being the passive contributor.

In India, despite Daan ( selfless giving ) being one of ten virtuous acts according to Hindu scriptures, it’s very difficult to squeeze some daan out of one’s pocket. That is just the way we are.

I want to bring this Charity Store concept in India where people can donates the used belongings which are in good condition and the store would sell it to people who requires it. The money generated in process would go to a charity, thus making us that passive contributor.

3. Papa don’t preach

We are very protective of our women. It is out of the fear of the uncertain danger lurking in the dark alleys that we ask them to come home before dark, not go out alone, control their online activity, avoid responding to eve teasing. And stopping at that we feel we have realised our responsibility. In actuality we have only taught them how to run away from threats and problems. And they never learn to fight such evil. No surprise, crime against women is on the rise even as we become more educated.

I believe we should strive to make fighters out of our women, quite literally. Akansha Gaute won a Bravery award after fighting off 4 miscreants who tried to loot her father, and she is only 16. I like to imaging a time when most of our girls will be given training in free hand combat from their very school days, so that they are able to defend themselves against most of the crimes that they may be subjected to. No father or brother should have to curtail a woman’s freedom of movement just to protect her.

4. What must really change

A famous joke says Politics comes from two words, ‘poly’ meaning many and ‘ticks’ meaning small blood sucking parasites. We are very quick to call our political class a bunch of thugs, corrupt to the hilt. Ironically we are quicker to blame them for any inaction in socio-political sphere. Why do we expect ‘thugs’ to straighten our society. I take a different line of thinking. What must we do to make these ‘thugs’ carry out the wishes of the masses, the true masters of the political class in a democracy.

Politicians pay heed to what happens in rural India because therein lies the real vote bank. Urban voters not being a substantial part of a vote bank don’t affect electoral outcomes and thus matter less to them. Mumbai’s 40% voter turnout immediately after 26/11 spoke of the seriousness of people who took out endless protests to bring change in the security setup. It’s no surprise that in Mumbai, much like any other city, things remain the way they always were. Gandhiji said “be the change you want to see in the world”. Let us become a vote bank that can swing political fortunes. It is then that the protests and gheraos will really make a resounding impact. Let us all proudly flaunt our voter ids the way we flaunt our hi-tech gizmos. Let the next election day be the day we take back the control of our country. Any other change that we want to see must start with this small effort to walk to the polling booth.

5. Go Green, Ordinary People

Well a lot of us know what is global warming and how it affects us. And most of us are aware that we need to save our resources for our coming generations. But how much do we really do.

Reduce , Reuse and Recycle are 3Rs we should live by.

Reduce our use of energy resources. Try walking, cycling,car pooling or use of public transport. Unplug chargers when you are not using them. Reduce your unnecessary use of water.

Reuse your lunch bags, containers,napkins etc. There are loads of ways you can reuse your things and save environment. Think of how you can start making small changes.

Recycling is a big step to save the environment. There are several recycling channels in India. Your raddiwaala, bhandiwaali, kabadiwaala , rag pickers etc are at your service. You just need to make an effort to separate things and use these channels. eWaste Recycle is also something that we need to think about and make an effort towards it.

So to sum it up, these are my 5 concerns and we all can make small efforts to inculcate a habit to overcome these problems. And these habits can unknowingly effortlessly be a part of your daily life.

Wow, really good points. Especially liked your views on the vote bank politics not that I share the same concern as yours on Indian politics. As you see my point being that development of an area depends on the elected leader irrespective of the fact that the area is urban\rural.because as a whole if you see rural areas are way behind in development than urban areas and its only getting worse with each passing day
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And therefore your point is duly noted that a deserving person should only be elected and I think the people should keep themselves abreast about the respective MLA/MP ‘s work , background , qualification etc. in the same manners they do about their IPL teams, after all its their society to look after.

I totally agree with your concept of “daan” – be it giving food instead of cash to beggars, or donating old clothes, shoes, books, electronic items, etc. to those who need them. The idea of a Charity Store is smart and absolutely a need-of-the-hour, highly doable one.

About me

Howdy!!
I am Alpa, a crazy computer geek by the day and a bookworm with a chronic obsessive reading disorder, by night. If books are a woman's best friend, I am married to them.

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Alpa

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